It wasn’t a long time ago when the most critical challenge for companies was to develop a good product or service. Now, we are living in a very competitive economy where the most critical challenge for companies is the distribution of their product or service. This is why the core focus of the companies has shifted from development to marketing. Sure, the product or service development is also a critical challenge but not as much as its marketing. There are so many companies with a great product but many fail even to survive because they fail to properly market their product or service.
That’s why marketing has become an integral part and is a major function for every company. And because of the competitiveness of the market, the marketing landscape is always evolving, shifting, and getting more complex.
And for marketers, this means that keeping up with marketing activities can be a little daunting. Meanwhile, marketing automation software solutions streamline several marketing functions, enabling marketing teams to focus and prioritizes their efforts and resources on the core tasks that nurture leads and drive more revenue.
The marketing automation market has grown so much from $500 million to an expected $5.5 billion in 2019 during a time interval of just four years. And according to a report by Salesforce, 67% of leaders in marketing are already using one or more marketing automation software solution and another 21% are planning to begin using one during 2019. Meanwhile, the long list of marketing automation software solution continues to grow, making it more complex to find the most suitable platform for a marketer.
What is marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software refers to the solutions created for the goal of automating marketing efforts. Marketing automation software solutions are all about convenience and are designed to do most of the complex, time-taking, and tedious work that is needed to execute all of your marketing campaigns. And when they are used to their full capabilities and potential, they can transform an organization’s bottom line.
Marketing teams have to automate the repetitive tasks like social media, email, and many other including website actions and the marketing automation software solution makes these tasks easier and save a lot of time.
The general features of marketing automation software solution include email marketing, campaign management, customer lifecycle management, engagement marketing, forms & landing pages, prediction and scoring, CRM integration, mobile marketing capabilities, social capabilities, and marketing analytics. Marketing automation software solution brings value and ROI to several marketing activities. And the correct marketing automation software solution paired with smart organizational and process alignment makes it possible to join the dots between the marketing emails you sent last week, the webinar you hosted last month, and the revenue your CMO and CEO sees today or can expect to see at the end of this quarter.
Although there are critical differences between the vendors of marketing automation software solution, success is usually determined primarily by 3 things;
- Your process and strategy
- Your lifecycle and content
- Your people
And by properly investing these core areas, you can effectively achieve better ROI from marketing automation software solution. The key to success lies in thinking big, starting small, and moving fast. In simple words, the better result usually comes from starting with what you have now, and then continuously investing over a period of time to climb up the curve.
We have identified several and finalized a list of top 10 marketing automation software solutions that has robust features, capabilities, and are cost effective. They are very effective in simplifying many complex and time-consuming marketing activities.
1. HubSpot
HubSpot’s marketing automation software solution very heavily relies on list building approach to help you manage your workflows. It allows you to grow or shrink a list in the same way as you would shortlist items on Amazon or on eBay, a simple yet incredibly fast feature. Adding a URL to your contact record, this software solution automatically pulls the demographic data of that contact like their company geographical location and their total number of employees. You can easily email any of your contacts straight from your contact record. You can also create a voice-over-IP (VoIP) message which allows you to log and quickly save call information within each contact record.
HubSpot’s marketing automation software solution is widely recognized and specializes in inbound marketing to offer a range of marketing automation features and capabilities. With a complete range of integrated marketing tools over email marketing, social media, blogging, SEO, and many more, HubSpot’s marketing automation software is a comprehensive solution for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of marketers. It has 4.3 out of 5 stars from 3,872 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
- Monitors leads, landing pages, and performance.
- Content management system.
- Provide contextual and relevant marketing experiences.
- Create automated workflows around your goals.
- Track, convert and categorize leads.
Pricing:
The starter package is priced at $35/month, the professional package is priced at $560/month, and the enterprise package is priced at $3,200/month. Free trial of this solution is also available with limited features.
2. Marketo
Many industry leaders describe Marketo as the best solution in its category and they are totally justified to say so. Without any doubt, Marketo is one of the leaders in the marketing automation category. And to begin with, the solution virtually covers every digital marketing need and guides the leads from acquisition to advocacy. It also offers a special feature termed Customer Marketing to accompany it’s lead generation and email marketing features, created as an independent tool for real-time personalization and engagement.
Marketo is a multi-functional automation software solution that offers marketing automation, real-time personalization, customer engagement marketing, and marketing management capabilities that includes budgeting tools and marketing calendars. It has 4.1 out of 5 stars from 1,892 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
- Campaign management and email marketing.
- Lead generation and search marketing.
- Optimize and measure ROI.
- Website visitor tracking.
- Mobile and web personalization.
Pricing:
- The Spark package is priced at $999/month which includes 30 campaigns and 1 domain.
- The Standard package is priced at $1,499/month which includes 60 campaigns and 1 domain.
- The Enterprise package is priced at $2,999/month which includes unlimited campaigns and 4 domains.
- The Consumer package is priced at $1,499/month which includes 60 campaigns and 1 domain.
3. Pardot
Salesforce’s marketing automation software solution named Pardot is a full-featured solution for accelerating leads in the sales pipeline and driving more sales.
And there is a very small chance that you haven’t heard of Salesforce’s Pardot, a robust solution that got huge popularity despite being comparatively new in the market. Pardot offers email marketing, easy sales alignment, end-to-end lead generation and management, and ROI reports. Its ability to work with the remaining solutions is impressive as it was developed to seamlessly blend in and at the same time require very little IT adjustment. It has 4.0 out of 5 stars from 1,567 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
- Email marketing and social media.
- Landing page, forms, email template, and search connector.
- Connect all search engine campaigns.
- Lead scoring, lead grading and lead nurturing.
- Segmentation wizard.
- ROI reports.
- CRM integration.
- Real-time sales alerts.
Pricing:
- The Standard package is priced at $1,000/month with limited features.
- The Pro package is priced at $2,000/month which includes A/B testing, advanced analytics, and dynamic content.
- The Ultimate package is priced at $3,000/month which includes API access, and custom user roles.
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation software solution offers a seamless experience to improve marketing efficiency. It has many robust features which include marketing automation, email marketing, sales, and customer relationship management solutions.
While the majority of the marketing automation software solution searched for that little element that would make their solution unique, the team behind the development of ActiveCampaign actually found the little element in the unexpected place, which is automation done the good old fashioned way, that is even simpler. After that, ActiveCampaign has been widely recognized as no-clutter marketing, a solution that sends just highly effective messages. The solution supports customization without any condition and provides valuable sales insights and best practices. At present, ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation software solution has more than 1, 00,000 users that claim to have access to all the marketing faucet, and delivers more than 150 integrations for the purpose of data migration. It has 4.5 out of 5 stars from 856 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
- Customized marketing automation with branches, triggers, conditions, etc.
- Personal data and behavioral data for your contacts.
- Email marketing.
- Tracks custom events and page visits.
- Segmentation based on an advanced or basic concept.
- Trigger actions on the basis of website visits and several other behaviors.
- Create marketing campaigns with dynamic content.
- Real-time social media analytics.
- Customization of email content based on customer interactions and other data points.
Pricing:
The Basic package starts at $9/month that includes email marketing and marketing automation.
The Plus package starts at $49/month that includes lead scoring capabilities and CRM with sales automation.
The Enterprise package starts at $149/month that includes dedicated account representative and custom mail server domain.
5. SharpSpring
The team behind the development of SharpSpring’s marketing automation software solution believes that streamlined communication and timely delivery are organization’s core assets that drive conversion and growth and hence focuses all efforts and features to help you build meaningful relationships that will last longer.
It is an affordable and all-inclusive marketing automation software solution that has been developed to generate more leads, drive sales, and improve ROI. It delivers powerful features to any company of different size. SharpSpring’s marketing automation software solution easily integrates with your existing solution in places like CMS, CRM, and form builder solutions.
The solution is simple and quite easy to afford and allows you to send the right message to the right person and at the right time. SharpSpring’s marketing automation software solution is highly integrated and completely optimized for mobile usage and very easily understood even by non-professionals. You can consider it offers hassle-free marketing automation, usability, social assistance, better customer insight, and end-to-end mobile CRM. It has 4.3 out of 5 stars from 275 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
• Behavioral email automation.
• Campaign tracking.
• Dynamic forms and landing page created for conversion.
• Engage with leads.
• Visitor ID identifies more than leads.
• 3rd party and built-in CRM.
• Publish a blog in no time using blog builder
• Slice and dice all metrics in customized reports in order to make decisions using relevant and accurate data.
Pricing:
The first package having contact limit of 1,500 is priced at $450.
The second package having a contact limit of 10,000 is priced at $650.
The first package having contact limit of 20,000 is priced at $875.
Contact sales for the Agency and Enterprise packages.
6. Oracle Eloqua
Oracle’s Eloqua marketing automation software solution was top-ranked in Q4 2018 in Forrester wave B2B marketing automation platform and also received the highest score in the lead nurturing and data management criteria. It is an integrated solution designed for B2B marketers to manage data and customer experiences.
Right from campaign management to segmentation, targeting, lead management, and many more, it offers a highly comprehensive suite of marketing automation solution. Oracle Eloqua, commonly known as MA execution tool among developers that drives dynamic conversions has the reputation of the user’s most favorite experience personalization solution. Eloqua is available in several languages worldwide has the longest list of satisfied customers. Eloqua’s customers are impressed by its simplicity that doesn’t harm any functionally in any way. It does not just help to create effective strategies but also improves the ones that are already in place, giving sales teams the much-needed push for success. Eloqua offers simple drag-and-drop canvas like interface where one can easily transform, normalize, arrange data, and at the same time orchestrate experiences across all channels, either its paid, owned, and earned media channels. It has 3.8 out of 5 stars from 499 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
• Email marketing and content marketing automation.
• Campaign templates tailored to meet marketing objectives.
• Build forms, landing pages, and campaigns using intuitive tools.
• Nurture leads using automated welcome emails.
• Launch up-sell campaigns, webinars, and many more.
• Event management and automation.
Pricing:
The Basic package is priced at $2,000 that allows 10 users.
The standard package is priced at $4,000 that allows 50 users.
Contact sales for the Enterprise package that allows unlimited users.
7. GetResponse
GetResponse’s marketing automation software solution offers several layers and features. It is highly affordable starting at just $10/month with limited features and has more detailed packages to cater to diverse marketing needs.
It is one of the few solutions (like HubSpot) that have been developed for inbound marketing. Its visual campaign builder is highly used and is one of the favorite aspects of this solution. Its workflow and autoresponders are just amazing. They offer a variety of pricing plans based on your needs, and recently they have added multiple features like CRM, landing pages and webinar hosting. GetResponse offers automated communications including segmentation and personalization. It has 4.2 out of 5 stars from 491 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key Features:
• Lead qualification.
• Engagement and retention.
• Post-purchase features like confirmation, follow-up, etc.
• Abandoned cart features like time-based reminders, templates, etc.
• Webinars and events.
• Sales promotions like, upselling, sales campaigns.
• Affiliate marketing.
• Create and manage workflows.
• E-commerce.
• Tagging and scoring.
• Troubleshooting and fixing workflows.
Pricing:
The First package having a contact limit of 1,000 to 100,000 starts at $15/month.
The Pro package having a contact limit of 5,000 to 100,000 starts at $49/month.
The Max package having a contact limit of 10,000 to 100,000 starts at $165/month.
The Enterprise package is priced at $1,199/month.
8. Act-On
Act-On’s marketing automation software solution enables you to easily identify prospective customers, understand the growth of your marketing program, move buyers in the sales funnel at a faster speed, and focus more on delivering top-notch experiences to your customers. It enables you to get very granular and focused on various segments prospects or customers you want to target. It has 4.1 out of 5 stars from 729 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key features:
• Email marketing, search engine marketing, and social media marketing.
• Forms and landing pages.
• Lead nurturing, lead scoring.
• Automated programs.
• Website visitor tracking.
• A/B testing.
• Reports & analytics.
• Integration with various CRM.
• Integration of your web events platforms.
Pricing:
The Professional package is priced at $900/month.
The Enterprise package is priced at $2000/month.
Contact sales to get a customized quote.
9. Autopilot
Autopilot’s marketing automation software solution is one of the most visually appealing solutions in its category. It is much simpler compared to the other automation software solutions in the market. It offers you to easily setup visual customer journeys see exactly what’s going on and also lets you test it. And the pricing structure makes it quite easy to access all its features and benefits. Its autopilot is quite easy and pleasant to use. It has 4.6 out of 5 stars from 308 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key features:
• Segment leads and customers.
• Design and build customer journeys.
• Collaborate and Annotate with your team.
• Send personalized emails with drag-and-drop ease.
• Share your story on every channel.
• Automate with shapes.
• Set goals and get intelligent insights.
Pricing:
Try any plan free for 30 days, without any credit card information.
The Silver package is priced at $0/month.
The Gold package is priced at $99/month.
The Platinum package is priced at $899/month.
Apart from this, it offers some add on services like,
Expert setup and onboarding is priced at $1499.
Salesforce CRM integration is priced at $199.
An activity stream is priced at $99.
Dedicated IP address is priced at $149.
10. Drip
Drip’s marketing automation software solution is one of the very few solutions that have been primarily developed for e-commerce marketing automation. Drip offers one of the most “open” solutions, claiming that they do very well with almost any marketing strategy. It’s a lightweight solution that doesn’t totally suck. Drip’s marketing automation software solution enables you to design each interaction with your trial users, leads, and customers and helps you to improve results. It lets you set-up automation for just about anything. Drip is very user-friendly and quite simple to use. It has 4.4 out of 5 stars from 226 customer reviews on G2Crowd.
Key features:
- Marketing automation and Email marketing.
- Send targeted emails based on events.
- List management.
- HTML and plain-text emails.
- Automatically create 5-day email courses based on your current content.
Pricing:
It offers a Free trial for two-weeks.
The Basic package is priced at $49/month and has a contact limit of 2500.
The Pro package is priced at $122/month and has a contact limit of 5000.
Contact sales for the Enterprise package.
More on marketing automation software solution:
If you are still unable to make up your mind, then make a list of the features that you want from a marketing automation software solution and then shortlist them based on your list. It will help you to choose the best possible solution that can help you carry out all your automation activities effectively and with ease.
About Infotanks Media:
Infotanks Media provides End Users of all top Marketing Automation Software’ and track more than 50 vendors under Marketing automation. Infotanks Media provides End User/Customer database of Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, Active Campaign, Sharpspring, Eloqua, Getresponse, Act-on, Autopilot, Drip, and all other Marketing Automation vendors. The data fields we provide are:- Technology Type, Company Name, Contact Name, Title, Phone Number, Email Address, Physical Address, City, State, ZIP Code, Country, Fax, SIC Code, Industry, Employee size, Revenue size, and Website address.
Infotanks Media is a Global Technographics Data Provider, tracking 10,000 plus software and hardware technologies at the premises with over 40 million contact database of End Users and Decision Makers.
